Killion: Kaepernick dazzles in playoff debut

There’s the practice Colin Kaepernick. But we’re just talking about practice.

Then there’s the game-day Kaepernick.

What was unveiled on Saturday was the playoff-game Kaepernick, a guy who made Patrick Willis’ eyes bulge in awe.

“Wow,” the 49ers‘ linebacker said of his sideline reaction after Kaepernick outran Green Bay’s secondary for a touchdown. “Did he just do that?”

“To see him do it in a game, it amazes me.”

Kaepernick amazed, dazzled, awed. Not just his own teammates, but also the Green Bay Packers and the national audience.

And he put his team in the NFC Championship Game. Kaepernick, as his coach Jim Harbaugh had predicted, played like a savant. A touchdown-scoring, running, throwing, taunting, record-breaking, fast-as-lightning savant. He made Harbaugh’s faith in him, the coach’s giant mid-season gamble, pay off in a big way.

An NFC Championship way.

It turns out the analysts were only a third correct. The 49ers’ game against Green Bay wasn’t defense, or the kicking game. But it was about Kaepernick.

The big question going in was whether he would have playoff jitters. Well if the tattooed Turlock quarterback had the word “jitters” inked on any part of his body, Saturday’s blazing performance would have lasered it right off.

Kaepernick started Saturday night’s playoff game – just the eighth start of his NFL career – with a nightmare. The rawest of newbie mistakes: a pick-six in the first two minutes of the game.

His reaction? He rebounded to set a 49ers franchise record and an NFL record, and lead his team to within one game of the Super Bowl. Jitters? What jitters?

“He just shook it off,” left tackle Joe Staley said. “On the sidelines, you could see he was ready to go. That’s the way he is. He’s not a real emotional guy. He just wants to get on to the next play.”

Kaepernick is resilient. He was in college. He is in the pros. He not only bounced back from the early interception, but he also got into a shoot-out with the reigning league MVP, Aaron Rodgers, and won the game.

Kaepernick has now gotten the 49ers as far as Alex Smith did last season. And he’ll wait until Sunday to see whom the 49ers will play to go one step further: either a road trip to Atlanta or a home game against nemesis Seattle.

As in the NFC divisional game a year ago, the 49ers hosted a brilliant quarterback just two years removed from a Super Bowl victory. And there were questions about how their own quarterback would match up. Last year, the questions were about Smith. This year, the questions were about how inexperienced Kaepernick would perform.

He was, in order, frightening, brilliant and jaw-droppingly brilliant.

On the fourth play of the game, Kaepernick looked to his right for his security blanket, Michael Crabtree. But the blanket had slipped to the ground. Kaepernick looked left for Vernon Davis and made an awkward cross-body throw that was picked off by Sam Shields and returned for a touchdown.

Unrattled, Kaepernick took the 49ers right down the field. He took off after finding all his receivers covered, for a 20-yard scoring run. That wasn’t a designed run, though many of them were, coming on the read option.

“It’s hard for a quarterback after throwing an interception to respond with a touchdown drive,” Harbaugh said. “I think that’s a rare quality.”

Kaepernick fought back adversity again in the second quarter. After a 15-yard gain down to the 9-yard line, he was crushed between two Packers like a roll in a panini maker. He sprung up from the hit and threw down the ball, punctuating the move with some feisty words. He was flagged for a 15-yard taunting penalty. Another young mistake, taking the team out of the red zone.

But two plays later, Kaepernick threw a laser-like pass to Crabtree, draped in a Packers defensive back. It wasn’t just finding a small window, it was, as one Twitter follower said, finding “a peephole in the knothole of a very small cat door.”

Another touchdown. Another example of Kaepernicking.

And, though everyone knows that the greatest bro-mance going in sports right now is “Crab-ernick,” the connection between Crabtree and Kaepernick, the Packers couldn’t shut it down. Crabtree caught nine passes for 119 yards and two touchdowns. After the game, Crabtree complimented Kaepernick on his burgundy pants and navy blazer ensemble.

“Damn man, GQ,” said Crabtree, who was rocking the indoor sunglasses.

The fashion statement of the day was blistering speed. By the end of the first half, Kaepernick had 107 yards rushing, just 13 shy of Michael Vick’s playoff record for rushing by a quarterback. Early in the second half, he shattered that record by running 56 yards for a touchdown that broke the game open and seemed to break Green Bay’s resolve.

Kaepernick also broke the 49ers’ franchise record for rushing in a playoff game, surpassing Roger Craig’s mark against Minnesota on Jan. 1, 1989. When faced with a blitz, he stepped up into the pocket against pressure and took off.

Green Bay used a spy at times on Kaepernick, but he was about as effective as Inspector Clouseau.

“It’s hard to defend a quarterback that fast,” Willis said.

Kaepernick threw two touchdowns. He ran for two. He broke records. He kissed his tattooed bicep. As usual, he was brief in his postgame answers, but when asked if was a thrower or a runner, Kaepernick was quick and decisive.

“I don’t want to be categorized,” he said.

For now he’s in the category Willis described with one word: Wow.

Record night

Colin Kaepenick set a record for most rushing yards by a QB, breaking Michael Vick’s old mark: